Application of Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Adaptive Learning Platforms in Course Delivery by Economics Educators in Public Tertiary Institutions in Abia State, Nigeria

Résumé

The study assessed the application of Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Adaptive Learning Platforms in Course Delivery by Economics Educators in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. Two research questions guided the study. A descriptive survey research design was adopted to explore the current state of artificial intelligence application by Economics educators’ in course delivery. The population of the study is 46 Economics lecturers in tertiary institutions in Abia State. This comprised 14 Economics Education lecturers and 32 Economics lecturers. Census sampling was adopted for the study because the population is of manageable size. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire, titled “Application of Artificial Intelligence in Course Delivery by Economics Educators Questionnaire (AAICDEEQ)", developed by the researcher. The instrument was face-validated by three experts: two from the Economics Education programme and one from Measurement and Evaluation, all from the College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient was used to determine the reliability coefficient of the instrument, and the instrument yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.74 which was high enough for the instrument to be considered reliable. Nine copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the respondents and also retrieved by the researcher. The mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, and the t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the application of AI in course delivery by Economics educators in public tertiary institutions in Abia State is currently at a low level. Based on the findings, the study recommended, among others, that educational authorities and stakeholders should organise regular seminars and workshops to train and retrain Economics educators on the effective use of AI in course delivery.